This article was written as part of The Michigan Daily News section’s Campus Life beat project on how campus life has changed over the years at the University of Michigan. Read other stories and listen to a podcast on the topic here.
The University of Michigan is home to 19 academic schools that grant degrees in a variety of subjects, from sport management and urban technology to pharmaceutical sciences. Despite its number of programs, the University has not added a new college since 2008, which saw the addition of the School of Kinesiology. The University first began offering courses in the College of LSA in 1841. Other colleges focusing on technical training were soon added, including the Medical School in 1850, the Law School in 1859 and the School of Dentistry in 1875.
Despite the choice of colleges available at the University today, these colleges have not always been around for U-M students. As trends in education change over time, the University has responded in a few ways, including adding additional colleges.
In an interview with The Daily, Brian Williams, Bentley Historical Library archivist, said while several U-M colleges originated from the College of LSA, the decision to establish a new college requires careful consideration.
“It’s a pretty intentional process,” Williams said. “The College of LSA was the main college and a lot of the present schools and colleges flowed from that. Eventually, there was an accumulation of courses (which) became a department and (as) the demand and rigor increased, they decided to make it a school. But it doesn’t happen very often anymore.”
Williams said the impetus for adding new colleges is often tied to expanding knowledge in certain fields.
“A lot of it is really connected to world events and changing fields of inquiry,” Williams said. “As things got more technical, you saw the (Engineering Department) really open up … eventually they added aerospace, which follows the history of flight and space. You saw electricity come in in the 1860s, and they started offering courses in electrical engineering.”
Though the School of Kinesiology started within the School of Education, an expansion of the kinesiology program led to the creation of a separate college. Emily Mathews, senior director of marketing and communications at the School of Kinesiology told The Daily that the Kinesiology School used to only offer degrees in physical education when it was a part of the School of Education.
“When we started, we were primarily physical education,” Mathews said. “And it makes sense because most of the folks at that time who got their degree in physical education also got their teaching certification, so being housed in the School of Education made perfect sense. But then when we started adding more majors, like movement science, sports management and athletic training, those weren’t specifically tied to getting a teaching certificate.”
Though the School of Kinesiology was established in the early 2000s, it only had its own building on campus starting in 2021. The Edward Henry Kraus Building was a $120 million project and includes an exercise training center, an anatomy lab, a neuromonitoring room and more. Mathews said the school greatly benefits from the establishment of the building, especially when it comes to research opportunities.
“We currently have 28 labs and centers,” Mathews said. “We are doing significant research at the University, which makes sense because we are a research-based institution. So we have folks studying everything from recovering after ACL surgery to … (the influence of) the availability of green spaces (on communities). I think one of the biggest ways that we have grown is in the area of research and the diversity of our research.”
Mathews also said developing a college for a degree program provides greater visibility within the U-M community than creating a division, which is a department or unit within a college, such as the Institute for the Humanities in LSA.
“Every school or college on campus has their own dean, they make their own financial decisions, (and) they have their own budget,” Mathews said. “They’re an administrative home for research labs and centers. A division is an in-between place, and becoming a school gave us a lot more visibility and autonomy than we had as a division.”
While adding new colleges has a strong impact on research potential, Williams said the formal development of a college would not greatly change student experiences’ who are already in the degree program. Williams said many programs, such as kinesiology, continue offering the same courses in their degree program as they did before their college was developed.
“If it’s an existing program that has a really strong department and it’s being elevated, it’s probably an easier transition because they’ve already been offering degrees in that,” Williams said. “Elevating it to a school is more of a formal change.”
University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald wrote in an email to The Daily that the purpose of U-M schools and colleges is outlined on the Governance, Bylaws & Policies section of the Board of Regents website.
“The schools and colleges are maintained for the purpose of serving the state and the nation through (1) providing instruction; (2) conducting scholarly investigations and research in those branches of knowledge that form the basis of modern culture, professional practice, and leadership in our business and industrial society; and (3) applying this knowledge to the solution of the problems of our society,” the website reads.
Adding a new college can have reverberating effects throughout the University. In an email to The Daily, LSA junior Andrew Ky, director of communications for CSG, explained the impact of adding a new college on CSG.
“Depending on the size of the new school/college, (the new school) would have a minimum of one representative, and more depending on the percentage of the student body that was affiliated with the school/college,” Ky wrote. “The assembly membership would stay at 45 representatives, so adding a new school would change apportionment and take at least a representative away from another school.”
Daily Staff Reporters Joshua Nicholson and Eilene Koo can be reached at joshuni@umich.edu and ekoo@umich.edu.